Name: Yoko Oota    

Year: 1996               

 

                                                                                                                      

   I have studied English for seven years. My way of studying was not effective until I entered the university. My way of thinking sometimes prevented me from speaking English. It must be helpful for my studying hereafter to look back on my language learning history.

     When I was a junior high school student, I did not like English very much. As I had listened to English tapes for children with my brothers when I was a little child, I was familiar with English. But I lost an interest in English gradually. It might be just because I was more interested in  other subjects,  such as Japanese or History.

     In English class, we only read the text book, picked up some grammatically important things and did workbooks repeatedly. The teacher did not speak English nor did they let us listen to tapes in their classes. Anyhow, I studied English unwilling then. One of my mistakes was I stopped listening to the tapes.

     Then an incident in summer vacation changed my way of thinking toward English. When I was a third-year JH student, an American boy came to Japan as an exchange student from Detroit and stayed at my house for about three weeks. He was such a nice boy and I wanted to talk with him, but I hardly spoke to him and I had my brother translate all of what he said. When we saw him off at the airport, my eyes were filled with tears. The reason why I cried was that I did not want him to go yet and I strongly regretted that I had not talked with him.      Sometimes I tried to speak to him but I could not because my brother was good at speaking English and I did not want to be compared with him. Moreover when he talked to me, I could not catch what he said at all, and it was at that time that I decided to study English and to talk with him one day.

     I started going to an English conversation school,  and came to study harder at school. I wanted to enter a certain high school which had an English learning department, but I could not because I was still poor in English.

     I entered a normal high school. What was waiting for me there was the study for the entrance exams to university. When I failed the entrance examination of the high school that I had wanted, I decided to study hard to enter university so I could study English there.

     But in high school I forgot the original purpose of learning English (to speak) and studied only grammar again. In high school, we did our textbooks of grammar for grammar class and translated the reading textbooks for reading class at home. Then we checked if our own answers or translations were right in each class. That was as if we solved mathematics problems. I did my homework hard and was satisfied with my work, so I did nothing more than that. I went to another English conversation school after school when I was a first- and second-year student in high school,  but I only memorized the passages in the textbook and I spoke Japanese frequently. I had a chance to speak English, but I didn’t. Now I regret not having spoken more English. When I was a third-year student, I started reading short English passages on the advice of one of my teachers and continued to read them every day until I graduated from high school. At first they were difficult for me, but I came to be able to read them fast and to enjoy them. I learned that it was important to keep doing something.

     I entered university and was surprised at the existence of oral communication class. I had never had classes for speaking. In LL class, even the Japanese teachers spoke only English and it was so fresh for me. I was also surprised at the phrase, "We can make mistakes." No teacher told us making mistakes was a good thing, so I felt I was relieved by that phrase. This class was completely different from my previous classes. We sang songs, walked around outside and talked with many people. That class itself surprised me so much.

     I had always been passive in language learning. Since I was in junior high school I was not so enthusiastic and merely attended the classes. But I came to find what I could do a lot to learn more. I wrote many letters in English and sent them to my friends during summer vacation. It was so much fun and I came to like to write English more. Then I came to buy bilingual videos,  instead of videos which had subtitles.

     What I also found helpful was to write the Action Log. At first I was poor at writing English and sometimes I thought it was tiresome and troublesome to write it. But owing to having written it three times a week,  I got used to writing English. Besides, I could know what we had done and what I had thought on that day by reading it later.

     I also found that it was good to record what I wanted to learn and listen to it over and over again. If we do so, we can study while we take a train and we can memorize things listening to tapes easier than by only looking at the paper.

     After I entered university, my English learning seemed to go well, but there was a time when I felt frustrated. During the summer vacation, my English skill was declining gradually. I was impatient when I realized the fact,  though there was nothing I could do. When I got nervous once, my head became empty and I could not speak well. The more I felt my English was terrible,  the less I wanted to speak.

     Around that time, I sat with a person in Work Shop class who spoke English very well. Her English brought so much pressure on me. I could not stand it and told one of my friends about it. After we had talked for a long time, I found I had forgot what we had been told. I should not have compared myself with anyone,  and should not have minded making mistakes. It took me much time to overcome the sense of frustration but I do not think it was a waste of time. I am going to speak English in a positive way and make up for the time.

     I have wanted to study abroad someday and now to study abroad is one of my goals for the next three years at University. To realize this, I want to especially improve my speaking and reading skill. And another goal is to be able to understand what a reporter says in sports programs on the satellite broadcasting. I like to watch Major League baseball games, but the words in sports programs are hard to catch for me. To continue to watch them kills two birds with one stone, that is, I can study English while enjoying baseball games.

            I entered this university and really learned how to study English. The first year in this university was the most enjoyable and fullest year that I have ever had. If I give any advice to next year's first year students, I will say "Be bold, and relax!"  In other words, "Be brave and greedy,  and relax to speak English." That was the most important thing I learned this year. I will learn many things next year through many experiences. I hope next year will also turn out to be satisfactory for me.